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Uruguay has, for the first time, marked two cultural properties with the Blue Shield emblem, the sign that identifies cultural properties protected under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.
The first was installed on 29 September at the Santa Teresa Fortress, in Rocha, and the second on 1 October on board the historic training ship Capitán Miranda, in the Port of Montevideo.
The events were organized by the Ministry of National Defence (MDN), the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) and the UNESCO Regional Office in Montevideo.
At Santa Teresa, participants included the Minister of National Defence, Sandra Lazo; the Undersecretary of the MEC, Gabriela Verde; the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Mario Rafael Stevenazzi; and the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Montevideo, Ernesto Fernández Polcuch.
During the day, Agustín Abella, of the UNESCO Office in Montevideo, presented the 1954 Hague Convention, its two Protocols of 1954 and 1999 and the opportunities for cooperation that open up for a country once it ratifies these instruments.
What is the Blue Shield emblem?
The 1954 Hague Convention is the first worldwide international treaty devoted exclusively to protecting cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict and also the First culture Convention ever adopted under the auspices of UNESCO.
It emerged after the massive destruction of cultural property during the Second World War. As of today, more than 130 States are Parties to it.
The Blue Shield is its distinctive emblem: it marks cultural property so that it can be efficiently recognized and respected by all stakeholders.
In the cultural sphere, it plays a role comparable to that of the Red Cross/Red Crecent/Red Crystal in the humanitarian one.
Its placement entails an international obligation of respect and safeguarding, both in peacetime and in situations of armed conflict.
Beyond marking sites, the Convention requires other preparatory safeguarding measures to be adopted in times of peace, such as emergency planning and training of the armed forces.
Two sites, two histories
Santa Teresa Fortress (Rocha).
Its first stone was laid on 6 October 1762, and the Portuguese colonel Osorio named it Santa Teresa. Within a year the Spanish general Pedro de Cevallos had taken it, in April 1763. The Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777) confirmed Spanish possession, and the 1852 treaty left this fort, along with San Miguel, within Uruguayan territory.
Declared a National Historic Monument on 26 December 1927, it began its restoration the following year and now lives on as a historical-military museum.
Santa Teresa National Park, promoted by Horacio Arredondo, was conceived as a green frame for the fortress. In 2024 the MEC declared the park a National Historic Monument as well, recognizing its cultural, architectural, archaeological, landscape and artistic heritage.
Watched over by the National Army, these stone walls still stand as a witness to Uruguay’s frontier history.
Training ship Capitán Miranda (Montevideo).
Built in the shipyards of Cádiz, Spain, and launched on 27 July 1930, the Capitán Miranda carries the name of Francisco Prudencio Miranda (1868–1925), Uruguayan naval officer and marine geographer.
It began its life as a hydrographic vessel, charting the coasts and waters of Uruguay until 1976. It was then reborn as a three-masted schooner and, since 1978, has served as a training ship of the Navy. It was the first Uruguayan vessel to circle the globe.
With Montevideo as its home port, it crosses oceans and calls at ports around the world as Uruguay’s “ambassador of the sea.” Today its decks are a school for new generations of sailors.
That the first emblem stands at a fortress safeguarded by the Army, and the second one on the Navy’s flagship training vessel, reflects the role of the armed forces as natural allies in protecting heritage.
